A captivating look at the roots of ‘African American Lives’

Sarah Rodman

For millions of Americans a trip to Ellis Island can be like opening
a personal history book.

But for most African Americans the computerized registries, immigrant
lists and artifacts hold few secrets since their ancestors were
brought to this country in chains and denied even the good old-fashioned
American bureaucracy of taking names. Instead their names were taken.

Which is what makes PBS’s new two-part series “African
American Lives” so fascinating and a fitting start to Black
History Month on television.

Hosted and co-executive produced by Harvard University’s Henry
Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. the four-hour program, broken
into two parts airing next Wednesday February 1 at 9:00 and the
following Wednesday, is similar to the concept of “Roots”
but says Gates, “‘Roots’ done with a cotton swab
and a chemical analysis!”

“Lives” focuses on nine prominent black folks: Gates
himself, Oprah Winfrey, actor Chris Tucker, musician-producer Quincy
Jones, pastor and author Bishop T.D. Jakes, actress Whoopi Goldberg,
astronaut Mae Jemison, neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Gates’
Harvard colleague and author Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot. Through interviews
with relatives, extensive public records searches and cutting edge
genetic technology Gates and his team of family tree detectives
are able to trace the lineage of each participant back many generations
and, in some cases, pinpoint where their ancestors hailed from in
Africa with surprising results for some of the participants.

For each person profiled the journey is an emotional one fraught
with surprise, sorrow and wonder as they pore over yellowed photos,
land deeds, death certificates and hand in DNA swabs with high hopes.

Among the highlights are Jakes learning a tragic story about his
grandfather and Tucker’s visceral response to discovering
his great-grandfather almost single-handedly kept his small Georgia
community together. Tucker and Gates also heads to visit the area
where the “Rush Hour” actor’s bloodline begins
with touching and comic results.

Although Tucker is the comic, Winfrey’s tale, though devastating
in parts, may get the biggest laugh. The Big O recounts her grandmother
instructing her to “get yourself some good white folks”
when she grows up, to make her life easier. Reflects Winfrey “I
regret that she didn’t live to see that I did get some good
white folks… working for me!” As she remembers watching
her grandmother boil clothes and hang them on the line in rural
Mississippi she understatedly declares, “She couldn’t
imagine this life.”

Jones is particularly engaging when discussing the brothel his grandfather
owned and the way in which music seduced him when his mother was
committed to an asylum. When he saw the big bands of Basie and Ellington
he was overjoyed at the idea of “a group of black men who
were dignified, unified, fun, worldly, smart and talented. I said
this is the family I want to be in.”

Since the subjects range in age from late 30’s to late 70’s
the series also almost incidentally neatly handles a good chunk
of black American history with plenty of evocative archival footage
of the rural south, the inner-city that grew up during the great
migration and the civil rights movement.

For viewers who know a good deal about any given person being detailed
the early going might be a little pokey as tales of, say, Winfrey’s
childhood, are well-trod ground.

But even the talk show host’s history contains revelations
that are startling, including a torturous deal she made with a childhood
molestor: he could have his way with her if he wouldn’t beat
his girlfriend, her second cousin. Stories like that and of unfathomable
oppression are somewhat tempered by happier tales of community and
family.

Perhaps the best thing that will come out of “African-American
Lives” is the spark it may ignite in viewers of all races
to talk to their parents, grandparents and elderly relatives to
uncover more of their own personal history. And for African-Americans
specifically, famous or not, this special serves as an excellent
reminder of the giants on whose shoulders we stand and who deserve
an illuminating light cast on them as a measure of well-deserved
respect.